Editing FOCAL (programming language) (section)

===BASIC===
While FOCAL was becoming popular on DEC machines, BASIC was becoming a more popular alternative on other platforms. By the late 1960s, several companies were making inroads in DEC's [[minicomputer]] stronghold, selling similar machines running time-sharing versions of BASIC. Notable among these was the [[HP 2100]] series, running [[HP Time-Shared BASIC]].{{sfn|Szczepaniak|2014}}

[[David H. Ahl]] had recently joined DEC's PDP-8 Group, just as the company became interested in selling the machine into educational settings. Due to the popularity of BASIC in the education market, especially with the growing library of BASIC programs from the [[Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium]], Ahl found selling the machine with FOCAL was difficult despite its advantages.{{sfn|Szczepaniak|2014}} As he later noted:

{{Blockquote|text=DEC's FOCAL language was equal to BASIC in most aspects and even better in some, but it had one huge drawback: DEC was unwilling to license it to other computer manufacturers. FOCAL was fighting an uphill battle against BASIC, which was available on GE, Honeywell, HP, and other computers.<br />I think it wound up with a situation like Sony and Betamax. Sony saying, "Betamax is ours and it is a better format than VHS," which it was. But then, JVC saying, "We have VHS and Toshiba. Hey, do you want to use it? Fine, we'll license it to you for next to nothing."{{sfn|Szczepaniak|2014}}}}

Ahl took it upon himself to produce a BASIC system for the platform, hiring a company he later learned was a single programmer in Brooklyn to produce a version for the 4&nbsp;kWord PDP-8. DEC began selling packaged versions of the PDP-8 with terminals and the BASIC as the "EduSystem" lineup, with larger systems in the series having expanded versions of BASIC, and in some cases, also FOCAL and [[FORTRAN]]. Some PDP-11 based EduSystems were also created.<ref name=edu>{{cite book |url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp8/tss8/EduSystemHandbookJan73.pdf |title=EduSystem Handbook |page=V |publisher=Digital |date=1973}}</ref>

Ahl then began porting programs from FOCAL to BASIC, notably [[Hamurabi (video game)|''The Sumer Game'']] (which he renamed ''Hamurabi''), a version of [[Lunar Lander (video game genre)|''Lunar Lander'']], and many smaller FOCAL demos. Combining his ports with submissions from outside programmers, he managed to collect enough material to have DEC publish ''101 BASIC Computer Games'' in 1973. The book was an immediate success and ultimately ran through three printings to 1975.{{sfn|Savetz|2013}}{{sfn|Szczepaniak|2014}}

By the mid-1970s BASIC was a standard feature of all DEC machines and FOCAL use evaporated.{{sfn|Savetz|2013}}